Adventure for children

Published 7:00 pm, Monday, March 21, 2005

"Barefoot Books, my publisher, has been wonderful about telling a story in a multi-cultural sense," Krebs said. "They've given me the format to do some of the things I want to do."

Like Krebs' last picture book, "We All Went On Safari," the book about The Galapagos Islands gives children an education on the region: first in a sing-song rhyming format suitable for younger readers followed by an informational text that older children can read themselves or parents can read to their children.

"I like to combine my love of writing with my love of travel," Krebs said, who wrote the two books following trips to Africa and to The Galapagos Islands.

Krebs has also written a six-book series on Colonial craftsmen and a third picture book, "The Beeman." "The Beeman" was her first, inspired by her husband, Bill, a beekeeper by hobby.

"We're Sailing to Galapagos" helps children learn days of the week, natural wildlife of the islands, and Charles Darwin's trip to the islands in 1831 as the naturalist on the ship called The Beagle.

"When I chose seven (Galapagos) animals to highlight with the days of the week, that was just the tip of the iceberg," Krebs said. "Then the illustrator, Grazia Restelli of Italy, included other Galapagos species in the drawings. Those were included in the glossary, giving children a sense of all the animals that live on those islands. The book has a little geology, a little natural history in it."

Krebs' books have been successful. "We All Went On Safari," which counts to 10 in Swahili and tells of the Maasi people, has been printed in 16 languages. The latest printing was in Korean. She's hoping for a similar response to "We're Sailing to Galapagos."

Krebs, who retired from a 20-year teaching career in Ridgefield in 1998, loves to take her books into the classroom. She has done book fairs in schools from New Hampshire to Virginia.

"Doing book fairs gets me back in touch with the children," Krebs said. "It lets me share my love of books and encourage children to love to write their own stories."

Krebs, a grandmother of five boys, is a prolific writer. She has a fourth picture book coming out in the fall, "We're Riding On A Caravan," a story of the Silk Road. She is also working on a fifth picture book about Mexico. Krebs enjoys the process of taking a complex concept and presenting it in a way that is easily understood by children.

She is signing "We're Sailing to Galapagos" at Barnes & Noble, 15 Backus Ave., in Danbury on April 10 at 3:30 p.m. She will also read from her books.

"I love to involve children in my readings, having them chant, 'We're sailing to Galapagos' as I walk behind them, reading the rhyming text," Krebs said. "Of course, I have a captive audience when I read at a school. My husband has actual photographs he took of the animals from the Galapagos that I'll have children hold as I walk behind them reading, when I do a presentation at a school. It gives me the opportunity to use the photos and tell a little bit about each animal."